Western Provinces Join Hands in Developing EconomyThe provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu and Sichuan and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region have developed a golden economic belt in western China through economic cooperation in the past 15 years.Founded in 1986, the economic cooperation zone, located in the juncture area between the three provinces and Ningxia, is 220,000 sq km in area, covering 86 cities, counties and districts, with a total population of more than 35.5 million. Statistics show that in the 15-year period, members of the economic cooperation zone collaborated in more than 12,000 economic and technical programs. Last year, the economic cooperation zone registered a gross domestic product (GDP) of 123 billion yuan (US$14.81 billion) and a revenue of over 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion), up 758 percent and 683 percent on the figures for 1985, respectively. The cooperation zone has held 13 Western China Commodities Fairs since 1989. Up to now, more than 200,000 businessmen from at home and abroad have participated in the fairs, with the total transaction volume hitting 60 billion yuan (US$7.2 billion). Local officials said that the Western China Commodities Fair has progressed from a pure commodities trade fair into a bridge and platform for investment introduction, economic and technical exchanges, personnel and information exchanges, and cultural and tourism exchanges between members of the cooperation zone. The fair is expected to attract participants from economically- developed provinces in eastern China so that it can promote the cooperation between the western and the eastern parts of the country, the officials said. |
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